We’ve seen this done with the Twilight Saga films, and we’ve seen this done with the Harry Potter films.
All three of these powerful film franchises originated from novel series where the last one is split into two when being adapted for the big screen. This is probably a strategy to extend the hype of the thunderous finale and to keep audience on the edge of their seat — a strategy that seems to work.
But Francis Lawrence, the director of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the two split The Hunger Games: Mockingjay films, expresses regret over the decision for the latter.
“I totally regret it. […]. We got more on the screen out of the book than we would’ve in any of the other movies because you’re getting close to four hours of screen time for the final book, but in an episode of television, if you have a cliffhanger, you have to wait a week, or you could just binge it, and then you can see the next episode.
“But making people wait a year, I think, came across as disingenuous, even though it wasn’t. Our intentions were not to be disingenuous.”
Lawrence has no intention of giving The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes the same treatment, thus giving the film a longer screen time — the longest in the entire series.
The Trailer for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” Has Dropped!
Check out the prequel to The Hunger Games franchise in November!
*Cover image via Lionsgate